


Unforeseen Consequences

by ATLPanther



Category: Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Dubious Consent, Extramarital Affairs, F/F, F/M, Infidelity, Murder-Suicide, Shooting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 07:11:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18751537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ATLPanther/pseuds/ATLPanther
Summary: Niko and Eve’s marriage has been struggling for quite some time. Niko makes some decisions that lead him to his demise.





	Unforeseen Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the ending of S2 Ep 5 and the first two minutes that were released for S2 Ep 6.

Niko sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. The last few weeks had been hectic in the extreme and he was just tired. It was the end of the school year, which is always stressful and busy with grading final exams, awards ceremonies, and graduation, but that could be dealt with and easily understood. What was harder was what had been going on at home. 

Eve had been distant the last few months. ‘Distant’ was an understatement. She only came to home and eat and sleep. She was always traipsing off on business trips without telling him. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was also the Villanelle factor. Even though she wasn’t there, his run in with her had been haunting him like a ghost. He had done things he would have never dared before and felt himself steadily losing control. 

She had appeared in Oxford at the spelling competition when he was supervising students. She was dressed as a lecturer, complete with a button down shirt and tie. Niko wasn’t sure if she was mocking him with her attire, but he felt an overwhelming rage upon seeing her. He deliberately lead her away from his students so that they could have whatever conversation she needed to have. 

Seeing her there, something inside Niko just snapped. He pushed her up against the wall, violently, holding his arm to her throat. 

“I didn’t think you had it in you. Good for you”, Villanelle began, haughtily. “Maybe you should try this with your wife.” 

Upon mention of Eve, Niko’s rage increased.

Villanelle continued, “I’m just here to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. I have forgiven Eve.” She also told him that Eve had been to her Paris apartment, crawled into her bed, and stabbed her. He showed her what did appear to be a stab wound on her abdomen before she took her leave of him, after saying he looked like mustached fudge. 

The insults didn’t bother him, but what did bother him was the niggling suspicion that Villanelle had not lied to him. He got the sense that Eve did, indeed, stab her. And she stabbed her in her own bed? Niko didn’t want to fathom the possibility, but he couldn’t shake the question. What would Eve be doing in someone else’s bed? This was a woman she was chasing because she was a serial killer. Why would she put herself in her home, let alone in her bed? 

He pondered these questions all the way back to London. As soon as the last student was collected by her parents, he headed home himself. He had to see Eve. He had to try to make sense of this conversation that he’d had with Villanelle. As he was walking home that evening a massive rainstorm broke out. It seemed apropos given the storm that was raging in his own mind. He didn’t even bother with a raincoat or umbrella, he just kept walking as the rain soaked him through. 

Niko loved Eve. He knew this. He had vowed to be with her until their deaths. Even though he didn’t quite understand why she did what she did in her role at MI6, he did try to be supportive. He, admittedly, wasn’t as supportive as he should have been, but he made an effort. He didn’t feel as though Eve was making an equal effort in their marriage. She tried to making gestures every now and then, serving him breakfast in bed or showing up for his school events, but even then he still felt like she made everything about herself. 

What he needed to feel from her, what he wasn’t getting from her, was the sense that he was a top priority in her life. He felt sometimes like she saw him as an irritation or another item on her To Do List. That feeling absolutely had to change. It was intolerable. The other thing that really hadn’t been addressed was her slapping him a few weeks back. She had proffered somewhat of an apology, but he hadn’t forgotten it and he hadn’t completely forgiven her for it either. As he approached their home, he saw a light in Eve’s office. 

“Must be working late again”, he mused aloud. He walked up the front steps and had just taken out his key to open the door, when Eve swung it open before he could. She looked panicked, as though she had been startled. 

“What are you doing out in the rain?”, she demanded. 

He was about to answer her honestly, but tonight, after having been seen by Villanelle and hearing her accusation, he didn’t feel like Eve deserved that kind of consideration. 

“She came to see me”, Niko replied. 

“Who?”, Eve asked. They both knew the answer. 

“Villanelle, she came to see me”, Niko said, striding into the house and slamming the front door behind him. He stalked up to Eve then. “She said you stabbed her.” 

“You can’t believe her, Niko. She’s a liar!”, Eve exclaimed. Niko still got the sense that Eve was the liar in the situation. 

“I believe her”, he stated, pressing Eve up against the wall. Eve gasped, her eyes wild as they looked up at him. “What do you want, Eve? Do you want me to love you, or do you want me to fight you?”, he asked. 

“...I don’t know”, Eve quietly replied. 

Niko was so angry, but he also was turned on despite himself. Seeing the fear in Eve’s eyes, the way she submitted to his unspoken demand as he pushed her down onto her knees, it was titillating. 

“Maybe Villanelle was right?”, Niko thought to himself. To Eve he ordered, “Go upstairs”. 

She did, crawling all the way. When they both got upstairs, they fell into bed. It was frenzied. Niko, who usually was a considerate lover for Eve, did not care if she enjoyed it this time. This encounter was all about his rage, his feelings of abandonment in their marriage, his need to reassert himself as first in her life. 

When their coupling was finished, Eve was in the fetal position, her back to him, weeping softly. Niko knew then that he had gone too far in taking Villanelle’s advice. He reached out to touch her shoulder, but Eve shrank from him. He rested against the pillow staring up at the ceiling and sighed as Eve’s sniffles continued all night. 

The next morning she was gone before he woke up. It was a Sunday, but he decided to go to the school anyway. He had some grading to do, and he didn’t think he’d be able to concentrate on it at home with the memories of last night’s events. He got dressed and got to the school before noon. As he passed by his classroom, he noticed that his next door colleague was also getting some work done on a Sunday. 

“Knock, knock!”, he announced himself. “How are you, Gemma?” 

“Niko! It’s so good to see you!”, Gemma replied with a wide smile. “Just trying to get some grading done before the end of the term. What are you doing here?” 

“Much the same”, Niko answered. 

Niko liked Gemma. She was a relatively new teacher at the school and a fellow math teacher, so they had a certain mutual understanding. They would crack terrible puns and tell math jokes to each other, much to the annoyance of others. Gemma was also very attractive. She was a lovely woman with dark hair and blue eyes, and more importantly she treated him very differently than Eve. 

Gemma was solicitous on his behalf. If he forgot his lunch, she provided it. She always asked how he was doing, if he needed anything, if he wanted company. It was a nice stroke to the ego to have a younger woman be so enamored with him, but he had never crossed any lines and maintained a strictly professional relationship with her. 

For some reason, though, today, after having had that experience last night, he realized he didn’t care about Eve. She clearly wasn’t concerned with him, and basically treated him like a self-sustaining cat for whom she only occasionally had to change the litter. If Eve didn’t care, why should he? Why was he trying so hard to preserve something that Eve seemed happy to throw away? 

With these thoughts in mind, Niko said to Gemma, “I was also hoping to see you.” 

“Really?”, Gemma didn’t disguise her blush. “What’s on your mind?” 

Niko strode toward the desk where she was sitting and stood on the opposite side of it. “Well...I might have a bit of a crush on a teacher”, he said with a sly grin. 

Gemma took a pause to process what she thought she just heard. She’d been quite taken with Niko for some time, but this was the first time he had ever given any inkling that he’d felt the same. In the time it took for her to come to this conclusion, Niko walked around to her side of the desk and pulled her into his arms. They embraced, and then kissed, and the kiss lead to the grading being forgotten as they consummated their new romantic relationship right on her desk. 

Much to his delight, Gemma was a very active participant in their coupling. Her main focus was his pleasure, and she was totally willing to do things as long as they were to his liking. The sex was passionate in a way it hadn’t been with Eve in years. He kicked himself for not permitting himself to experience this with Gemma sooner. 

After a while, they eventually had to put their clothes back on and also set the desk and papers back to rights. They also had to actually get some grading done in their respective classrooms as it was the only way for them to keep their eyes and hands off each other. Once this was done, they met in the hallway. 

“So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”, Niko said, feeling a bit awkward. What does one say after having begun an affair? 

“Yes, of course, Niko. I...is it ok what we did? Are you ok with what we did?”, Gemma replied. 

“I have no doubts about what we did, Gemma. We don’t have to do it again if you don’t—“, Niko began but Gemma cut him off with a kiss. 

“I’ve waited so long for this and I don’t want to only do this once”, Gemma replied, certainty in her voice. “There’s just one problem.” 

“My wife?”, Niko guessed. 

Gemma nodded. “At some point she has to know. I want to be with you, not just like this. I want us to be a real couple.” 

Niko nodded back, but he wasn’t entirely sure about this. Having an affair was one thing, an occasional roll in the hay was fine. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. 

“I’ll figure out some way to tell her”, Niko stalled. That seemed to satisfy Gemma for the time being, so they kissed each other goodbye and went their separate ways home. 

When Niko got home, he was happy to see that Eve wasn’t there so that he could shower. He inspected himself to see if Gemma had left any visible marks on him, but thankfully she hadn’t. He had some scratches on his back, but that would easily be covered by a shirt and he was sure that Eve wouldn’t be touching him or looking at him there, so he didn’t worry about it. 

His shower finished, he changed into his pajamas and settled down for the evening to watch Netflix. Usually when he did this he felt a bit sad that Eve wasn’t there with him, but today he felt strangely content with her absence. He closed his eyes and saw Gemma in his mind’s eye, heard her voice begging him for more, and he smiled. It was the best he’d felt in weeks. 

A text notification came through on his phone. He looked down to see two messages. Eve was informing him that she’d be home late. He rolled his eyes, as that wasn’t exactly breaking news. The second message was from Gemma. 

“I miss you”, Gemma wrote. 

“I miss you, too”, Niko responded. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” 

“See you then. Just don’t forget that at some point you have to tell your wife. Otherwise I don’t know what I’d do”, Gemma replied. 

Eventually he made himself dinner, prepared for the next day, and went to sleep. Eve had apparently come home at some point. Her side of the bed was rumpled, and she’d left some dishes in the sink, but she didn’t stay very long. She was already gone when he woke up. Niko shrugged. In the past this would have bothered him, but now he was just grateful he didn’t have to answer for his whereabouts yesterday. 

As he was getting dressed for the school day, Gemma texted him again. She sent him a photo of herself in just her lingerie, telling him that she’d be wearing it under her uniform and she hoped he’d be able to see it in person later that day. Niko took in the picture, unable to believe his dumb luck. 

“Who says affairs are bad?”, he said aloud to himself. He texted Gemma, “I can’t wait.” 

Still, if Gemma were going to send him pictures and messages like this, it wouldn’t do to leave his phone unattended and unprotected. He decided to set up a phone password before hurriedly getting himself dressed and to school. When he saw Gemma he just treated her like he did every other day, and she did the same. It seemed that no one else had noticed that the relationship between the two of them had changed. It was all falling wonderfully into place. Niko smiled again at his good fortune. 

At the end of the school day, Gemma texted him the address of a hotel where she wanted to meet that evening. He replied in the affirmative, and met her at the appointed place and time where the sex was just as satisfying and fun as it had been the day before. 

Once it was over, Gemma collapsed into his arms and kissed him before saying, “I meant what I said yesterday, Niko.” 

“Hm?”, he asked, almost falling asleep. 

“I want you to tell your wife about us. I want us to be together”, she told him firmly. 

“I’ll tell her”, he replied a bit tersely. 

“When? Have you already thought about that?”, Gemma asked. 

“Well, first of all, she has to actually be here for me to talk to her. And second of all, what’s the rush? We just started this yesterday”, he replied with a bit more irritation in his voice. 

“You may have just started this yesterday, but I’ve wanted to be with you ever since I saw you for the first time. I know what I want, and I don’t want to be your side piece. I’m ok with this for now, but eventually I want you to tell her. If you don’t, things might go really badly between us”, Gemma replied with equal irritation in her voice. 

Niko sighed. “I promise I’ll tell her. Just give me some time, ok?”, he asked. 

“I’ll give you a few weeks”, Gemma replied, “but I won’t wait forever.” 

“Fine, I understand. Can we drop it?”, Niko asked with a sigh. “I have to go soon, and I don’t want my last memory of this time together to be us having a fight.” 

“I’ll drop it for now, but you know where I stand”, Gemma replied before kissing him again. 

Eventually they got dressed and went their separate ways home. Niko’s mind swirled. The right thing to do was to tell Eve about the affair, but a part of him didn’t feel obligated to do so. 

“She keeps secrets. Some of the secrets she keeps are deadly. Why should I have to be the one to confess anything? Will she even care?”, he wondered to himself as he made his way home. 

To his surprise when he walked in the door there was Eve. She was sitting on the couch when he walked in. 

“Hi…”, he said, feeling awkward. 

“Hi, Niko”, Eve replied, clearly feeling equally awkward. “Did you...have a good day?” 

“Yeah, it was fine”, Niko replied lamely. 

“You’re home late,” Eve said flatly. 

For some reason that hit Niko in a sore spot. “Since when do you notice or care what time I get home?”, he spat. 

Eve didn’t say anything, temporarily cowed. With an irritated sigh he said “I’m taking a shower.” 

He headed into the bathroom after stripping off his clothes and hopped into the shower while feeling mixed emotions. He had been an ass to Eve just then, and he knew it, but that was done and he couldn’t change it. It wasn’t fair for him to say on the one hand that she didn’t care about him and wasn’t interested in his life, while also shutting her down the second she tried to ask about it. Looking into her eyes and face then he knew that he did have to tell her about Gemma eventually. With a sigh he finished his shower and put his pajamas on before heading into the bedroom. 

When he got there he noticed Eve had his phone in her hand. She looked at him accusingly before asking, “Since when do you have a password on your phone?” 

“Since my wife went to go chase serial killers all over Europe. Since my wife never talks to me. Since my wife apparently stabs people and never tells me”, Niko shot back, feeling the same rage he’d felt just two days before. 

“What does that have to do with you keeping secrets from me?”, Eve demanded. 

“You always keep secrets!”, Niko fumed. 

“Is there someone else?”, Eve asked, giving him an opening to be honest, but he was so angry that he didn’t feel she deserved his honesty. 

“No!”, Niko shouted. “But I know you’ve got someone else. You have Villanelle. She’s all you think about!” 

Just then Eve stepped up to him, looking into his eyes with equal amounts of hurt and rage. 

“What are you going to do? Slap me again?”, Niko asked mockingly. 

“...I’m leaving for the night”, Eve replied, taking a step back. 

“Good!”, Niko shouted. “Maybe you can actually talk to your MI6 colleagues instead of talking to me!” 

Eve packed up a few things and headed out. Niko sat on the bed and sighed, putting his face in his hands. He’d blown up and it was bad. He knew it was late, but he texted Gemma and invited her over. He didn’t need to be alone right then. She promptly responded and headed over in 30 minutes. 

Gemma took one look at him and gave him a tight hug. It felt so good to be touched like that, and Niko crumpled into her arms. She led him to the bed and just caressed and cuddled him and it was so comforting. The comforting eventually lead to sex, and he took no small measure of perverse delight in taking her in the bed he shared with his wife. 

Before she left early the next morning she sent him a nude selfie from that bed. Niko’s spirits were soaring. He went to school and had a good day. He saw Gemma and they smiled knowingly at each other in the hallway, but didn’t spend any further time together that day. Eve never contacted him. Part of him was hurt by that, part of him wanted to apologize, but a larger part of him was still angry at her and that part is what won out. 

This state of affairs continued for several weeks. He and Gemma would meet up for sex a few times a week. She didn’t make any further noises about Niko telling Eve, but he knew that the expectation of him doing so was looming over him. Eve eventually came back home, but went off on assignment god knew where for several days. She did tell him that she was now working with Villanelle regularly, which didn’t sit well with him at all, but he allowed it because she would be out of the house. 

Niko’s relationship with Gemma progressed rapidly. He felt himself falling in love with her, feeling things for her he hadn’t felt with Eve in years. The idea of settling down with her grew more and more appealing as time went on, and she continued to send him sexy selfies that he greatly enjoyed. Niko thought everything was going fine, but Gemma clearly didn’t feel the same. 

As time wore on Gemma’s dissatisfaction with the situation manifested in multiple ways. When she came over to Niko’s house, she hated seeing the pictures that he’d taken with Eve. She hated seeing Eve’s personal items all over, despite her basically not living there anymore. She kept pestering him to find out when he would finally reveal the relationship to his wife. After a while, she was fed up. 

She called him one Saturday morning and left him a voicemail on his phone. “I’ve waited several weeks for you to tell your wife about us. You haven’t. I will tell her myself if you don’t. If you want to stop me, meet me at the school at noon in my classroom. A minute later, I will call your wife.” 

Niko panicked. Not only was Eve back in town, but he hadn’t determined when and how he would actually have the conversation with her about Gemma yet. He needed more time. He checked the clock. It was 11:15. He scrambled to get dressed and out the door, barely walking in the door of Gemma’s classroom at 11:59. 

She clearly wasn’t bluffing. Gemma had Eve’s MI6’s email address pulled up on her computer screen with attachments. When Niko clicked the attachments he saw the pictures she had taken, some of them at their house, in their bed. His stomach dropped, but...where was Gemma? 

He frantically looked around the room for her, but she wasn’t there. Her phone was still there, so she knew she hadn’t gone far. He thought about calling after her, but he didn’t want to attract attention from anyone else, especially considering what he was looking at on her computer. 

Finally, Gemma stepped into the room a few minutes after noon. “Hi, Niko”, she said, flatly. 

“Gemma, what are you thinking? What are you doing?”, Niko demanded. 

“I told you, Niko. I told you that I wanted to be with you, that I wanted us to be together. Why did you wait so long?”, Gemma asked. 

“I’m sorry for waiting so long! I’ll tell her! I just need more time!”, Niko shouted, stepping towards her. 

As he approached her, he saw something that made him stop in his tracks. She had a gun pointed at him. 

“Tell her now”, she demanded, aiming the gun at him. 

“Gemma are you crazy? What are you doing with that?”, Niko screamed at her. 

“You heard me, Niko. Call her and tell her now”, she put bullets into the chamber and pointed the barrel of the gun at him. 

“I...ok…”, Niko said, slowly pulling the phone out of the pocket and dialing Eve’s number.

The phone rang and rang and rang until it went to her full voicemail. “You see? I can’t tell her now!”, Niko said, nearly hysterical. “I need more time.” 

“Your time is up”, Gemma said flatly. She shot him twice in the chest before shooting herself fatally in the head. 

A janitor overheard the commotion, saw the state of the two teachers in the room, and immediately called the police. Eve was informed and rushed to the school with her MI6 colleagues, including Carolyn and Villanelle. 

By the time she had gotten to the classroom, the police had a pretty good understanding of the circumstances leading up to his death. It was clearly a case of jealousy due to an affair. The email addressed to her was still on the computer screen, providing further evidence. 

Carolyn said, “I don’t know if this is a comfort at all Eve, but for the record, I never liked him.” 

“Same”, Villanelle replied. 

“Thanks a lot guys. That’s definitely what a widow needs to hear after her husband has been murdered by the woman he’s been having an affair with,” Eve replied. 

She tried to keep things light hearted during this initial investigation phase. She identified the body, looked over the email, helped the police fill out their paperwork. She tried to keep busy. Eventually, the police work concluded, and Carolyn gave her leave to take the next couple days off to plan her next steps. 

“Are you ok? Do you need anything?”, Villanelle asked.

“I...no. I’m fine, I’ll just head home”, Eve answered. 

Villanelle looked as though she wanted to argue with Eve about that, but she didn’t. Eve did go home, then, and walked in her house. Being in the house now felt like entering a stranger’s house. All of Niko’s property was there, the pictures of them together, his clothes, his ratty old briefcase. It all looked as though he was about to walk through the door at any moment.

Eve collapsed onto her couch and sobbed. She felt immeasurable guilt about how she had behaved the last several weeks, how she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to apologize. She also felt angry. 

“How could Niko be so stupid? Of all the women to have an affair with he chose this one?”, Eve fumed in her mind. 

Just then there was a knock on the door. Eve got up to answer it to find none other than Villanelle carrying a box of pizza and some wine. 

“I...figured you could use some company”, Villanelle said sheepishly. 

Eve wordlessly let her into the house. At least she wouldn’t have to go through this alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to @killingeve3 on Twitter for the prompt and ChyDev23 here on AO3 for the beta. Comments are super appreciated!


End file.
